A group of 7th graders at Ocean Springs Middle School presented a check to Principal Jerry Twiggs (center, right) and Assistant Principal Tiffany Hodge (center, left) Tuesday to be used to help a needy family of a fellow student.The Mississippi Press/Warren Kulo

OCEAN SPRINGS, Mississippi -- Selfless is a word not commonly associated with middle school age children.

Kids that age are normally most concerned with their latest romantic interest, where the next party is, when the next math test is and how to get out of doing homework.

But for a small group of 7th graders at Ocean Springs Middle School, doing for others can be as fun as it is rewarding.

For the second year, the group of 20 students has raised money to help a fellow student by donating the money to his or her family. Tuesday afternoon, the group presented a check for $800 to Principal Jerry Twiggs.

The money will be turned over to the school counselors, who will select a needy family to receive the money. The recipients will remain anonymous.

Twiggs said the students, with the help of their parents, do this completely on their own. Their fund-raising efforts are done completely independent of the school.

"That's the neat thing about it," Twiggs said. "It's not something the school pushes on them. They do this on their own. I think that's really noble and I think it speaks volumes to the kind of kids we have here in Ocean Springs."

Dorian Jones, mother of one of the students, said most of the kids in the group have been in school together since kindergarten.

"I wasn't really surprised when they wanted to do this," Jones said, "because this is a really good group of kids. They're really a tight-knit group."

Last year, the group raised $400 for a family in need. This year, they doubled that. The money was raised through a Halloween dance held Oct. 13 at the Fountainbleu Community Center. Ticket sales, concesssions and t-shirt sales accounted for the bulk of the revenue.

"We had about 80 tickets sold in advance," Jones said, "and about 40 more were sold at the door. They also sell t-shirts, which are donated to us by T.J.'s Custom Apparel."

Jones' son, Drew, said he doesn't really remember the genesis of the fund-raising effort.

"I just remember one day, out of nowhere, we decided we wanted to do something fun for kids our age and at the same time raise some money to help people," he said. "We thought it was a win-win."

Classmate Darcy Howell agreed.

"I feel really good about it," she said, "because while we get to have fun raising the money, the people who receive it will get to have a good time with it, too."

Howell and Jones said they do their fund-raiser in the fall to coincide with the start of the holiday season.

Dorian Jones said the parents chip in to help with start up costs, but with 20 or more parents involved, no one spends too much money. The group would have raised more than the $800 they donated Tuesday had they not had to pay for rental of the county-owned community center.